Critical Announcement for 187 Applications Lodged in Perth

187 RSMS Visa for Perth UPDATE November 16, 2017:

Update on processing of Perth RSMS applications lodged prior to 17 November 2017 when Legislative Instrument IMMI 17/059 (which removes Perth as a “regional” area) comes into effect: NO RETROSPECTIVITY!

Following my representations to the Assistant Minister and the Department I have just received the following advice from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection:

Hi Kevin,

The new Instrument applies to applications lodged from 17 November and will not be applied retrospectively.

Under the new Instrument [Legislative Instrument IMMI 17/059] the Perth metropolitan area is not considered regional for RSMS applications.

The RSMS applications in the Perth metropolitan area that we have on-hand and lodged before the 13 March 2017 with RCB certification will proceed to assessment.

Those RSMS applications lodged from 13 March 2017 onwards do not have RCB certification as the WA government’s RCB declined to provide certification. These applications will be finalised and as they cannot be approved without RCB certification, will be offered the option to withdraw or be refused.

End of Update

We received notice last night of an updated legislative instrument that will come into effect on the 17th of November 2017. It will have catastrophic effects on 187 nominations lodged and not yet decided by businesses based in Perth. As a summary, Perth will be removed from the 187 visa subclass as a regional area.

Who is affected

This will affect regulation 5.19(4)(h)(ii)(A): “the position is located in regional Australia”. The end result must be that without changes to the instrument, all nominations not decided before the 17 November 2017 must be refused, and this would also retrospectively affect nominations refused prior to 17th November 2017, that are still undecided with the AAT. The overall effect will be catastrophic to a large number of our clients including ourselves as we have applications pending.

Who is not affected

The following people are NOT affected

187 applicants in areas outside of the Perth Metro Area

187 applicants who’s nominations are approved

People on 457 visas applying for a 187 via the transitional stream

What is happening

The Migration Institute of Australia (MIA) has as a matter of urgency asked the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in charge of visa policy for transitional arrangements to apply to RSMS applications in the pipeline which will be affected by the Migration (IMMI 17/059: Regional Certifying Bodies and Regional Postcodes) Instrument.

If the MIA is successful in lobbying the department of immigration then all applications currently lodged (or with the AAT) will continue to be processed.

What do I do now?

I understand how stressful this situation is and am appalled at the departments ongoing disrespect for peoples lives. However, we ask that everybody waits for updates from us on the progress rather than sending a large volume of emails which we cannot possibly answer until the MIA gets a response.